


Heart of a Poet

by sicparvis87



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Freeform, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:07:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22885264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sicparvis87/pseuds/sicparvis87
Summary: Richie wants to write poetry. He goes to Ben to find out how.
Relationships: Ben Hanscom & Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 2
Kudos: 65





	Heart of a Poet

**Author's Note:**

> Just a random thing I wrote on [Tumblr](thepagemistress.tumblr.com). Turned out longer than I expected so thought I'd post it here too!
> 
> (Eddie's death is acknowledged and also rejected. Suck it, Stephen King.)

Richie notices how much Ben’s poem means to Bev. How much it meant even before she knew who wrote it. He notices and he starts Thinking. 

Then he starts writing.

Nothing much, just some lines here and there. He writes them late at night when he can be the most honest with himself. When he can barely read the words on the page with the bed sheet pulled tight over his head. 

(He burns them in the morning. A small pile of ash, growing at the bottom of a trash can.)

He becomes frustrated, annoyed at how he can’t force the words out. How they don’t say what he wants them to say. How does Ben do it so effortlessly?

Ben.

He could talk to Ben. He doesn’t have to tell him _everything_. And Ben wouldn’t laugh at him. It’s _Ben_.

And so, on one of the rare occasions they’re alone, Richie asks him how to write poetry. Ben doesn’t even ask why. Doesn’t for once consider that Richie might be using it against him. Instead, he tries to put it into words.

Don’t try to make it rhyme. Don’t look for a structure or follow a rhythm. Just imagine the girl you’re writing about and how she makes you feel. What you see when you look at her that maybe others miss. What makes her special to you.

It’s good advice. Give or take.

Richie tries again. And again. Stops burning his attempts, hiding them in a book instead. Some of the shorter ones he even lets Ben read. It’s worth it just for the pride in his face. Whether it’s the pride in the work or the sharing, Richie never asks.

They’re alone in the Clubhouse one afternoon, Richie tapping a pen on a notebook as he tried to focus on homework, Ben sketching some new design layouts for the underground fortress.

Eddie shows up later, disrupting the quiet, looking for a distraction. Wanting to do some doodling, he grabs at the blank notebook sitting in front of Ben, asking if he can steal a couple of pages. Sure, no problem.

Only there is a problem.

It is not Ben’s notebook.

And not all the pages are blank.

The boys realise the error too late, both pairs of eyes snapping up when Eddie is quiet for too long. His eyes skimming the page, a crease dug deep into his brow. Richie can read the words through the page, damning him. He stops tapping his pen, frozen. 

Ben acts for him, snatching the paper from Eddie’s grasp, clutching it to his chest. It’s private, he says. He wrote it for English class, he says. Eddie’s frown deepens. His gaze drifts to Richie, Ben’s follows. Richie looks like he’s about to throw up, eyes wide and panicked, the way they haven’t been since last summer.

Eddie glares once more at the piece of paper still clutched in Ben’s hand before muttering something about getting back home and climbs the stairs, leaving as quickly as he came.

Ben turns to Richie, opening his mouth to say something but before so much as a syllable makes it out, Richie grabs his stuff and jettisons his way out of the Clubhouse.

Ben still clutches the poem.

He reads it later that night. He’s not sure if he should but maybe Richie left it with him for a reason. It’s longer than the ones he’s used to seeing. The handwriting more erratic, the scribbled out words more frequent. He speaks of falling into doe eyes, drawing constellations across freckles. Of soft pale skin turned pink by the sun’s rays. Of a smile filled with light and barbed words like thorns on a rose. Still beautiful. Still perfect despite its sharpness.

Ben is an excellent English student. Is very good at reading between the lines and analysing texts. Knows immediately why Eddie reading this would cause Richie to run.

His heart breaks for his friend.

Continues to break when Richie keeps running whenever Ben tries to talk to him about it.

Breaks further when he hands the page back, only to watch Richie set it aflame with his lighter.

With time, he forgets the poem. The boy who wrote it. The boy it was about. But he can never quite shake the heartbreak.

~~The words come back to him in a rush as he stands in the quarry, watching as Richie cries. He sees the young boy, so in love and so scared. A boy who could write such beautiful words. Who grew into a man, famous for speaking the words of others, who was still scared. Who was still in love. And Ben is still there. Will still be there, if he wants to stop running.~~

Ben references the poem in his best man speech at Richie and Eddie’s wedding. Richie let’s out a surprised huff of a laugh, amazed that Ben can actually remember some of the lines. 

Eddie goes ballistic.

He fucking _knew_ that wasn’t Ben’s handwriting. He _fucking_ knew it. But wait, why is Ben quoting a poem Richie wrote for some doe-eyed bitch in their high school at _their_ wedding reception. That’s inappropriate.

Richie simply stares at his husband.

“You dumb motherfucker,” he says with a grin. “You’re lucky I love you. You doe-eyed bitch.”


End file.
